Polly Platt

Mary Marr "Polly" Platt (January 29, 1939 – July 27, 2011) was an American film producer, production designer and screenwriter.

Early life

Platt was born Mary Marr Platt in Fort Sheridan, Illinois on January 29, 1939, later adopting the name Polly. Her father, John, was a colonel in the army, while her mother, Vivian, worked in advertising; she has a brother, John. She moved to Germany at age 6 when her father presided over the Dachau Trials. Platt later returned to the US and attended the Carnegie Institute of Technology.

Career

Platt worked in summer stock theatre as a costume designer in New York and there met Peter Bogdanovich, whom she would later marry. She co-wrote with Bogdanovich his first movie Targets (1968), conceiving the plot outline of a "Vietnam veteran-turned-sniper" and served as the production designer on the film. She was also production designer on his film The Last Picture Show (1971), recommending Cybill Shepherd for her first film role, and despite the breakdown of their marriage, had the same role on What's Up Doc? (1972) and Paper Moon (1973). Platt had suggested Bogdanovich make Larry McMurtry's novel The Last Picture Show into a film. Bogdanovich commented that: "She worked on important pictures and made major contributions. She was unique. There weren't many women doing that kind of work at that time, particularly not one as well versed as she was. She knew all the departments, on a workmanlike basis, as opposed to most producers who just know things in theory." Platt was the first female member of the Art Directors Guild. She was also production designer on A Star Is Born (1976).

Polly Platt (author)

Polly Platt (9 January 1927, Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania – 26 December 2008) was an American author specializing in books related to Americans living or working in France. She also had a professional background working as a consultant, seminar leader, and public speaker.

In 1986, Platt established a training company in France, called "Culture Crossings", which offered seminars and workshops on living in France and intercultural management issues. Participants included corporate executives and spouses from companies doing business in France. Real-life anecdotes of cultural confusion, anger and disorientation culled from the seminars became the centerpiece of Platt's bestselling book on French culture, French or Foe? (1994).Financial Times refers to this book as the "Bible for Anglo-Saxon executives doing business in France."

Platt graduated from Wellesley College and was a journalist with the Philadelphia Evening Bulletin and the New York Post before moving to Paris in 1967 with her Serbian husband, Alexander Grchich, a UNESCO official, and their five children.